Court to review nuisance monkeys

By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Delhi

Hundreds of monkeys have been captured recently

India's Supreme Court is to review the fate of 300 monkeys captured roaming on the streets of the capital, Delhi.

The court had ordered that the monkeys be relocated to forests in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

But the animals are proving unpopular there and locals there have lodged an official objection to the plan.

Thousands of monkeys roam Delhi, mostly around government offices, and are considered a public nuisance.

For years the wild animals have caused havoc, riding on the city's metro trains, roaming through parliament.

They have invaded the prime minister's office and the Defence Ministry, helping themselves to top secret military files.

They cannot be killed because many Indians see them as sacred.

Instead they have been captured, their fate decided by a bench of Supreme Court judges headed by India's Chief Justice.

Some 250 monkeys have already been relocated by a court order to forests in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

But many people there are now objecting, saying the animals are bringing with them their hooligan habits learnt in the city and are terrorising rural villages.

So the Supreme Court has been asked to find another solution. The monkey menace is proving a tricky issue, exercising some of India's most eminent legal minds.